Wednesday, June 18, 2014

NGO Funding & Agitation Technology - Part 2

There is place for all opinions in a
democracy. There is abundant room for protests and agitations. These are not
hindrances to a democracy but its essence. But time is equally of essence. How
long do we protest and agitate? How long do two parties keep insisting their
opinion must prevail? In the end either some compromise is worked out or one
party wins the battle by the acceptance, defeat or death of the other. Don’t
look too far for an example of compromise in differing opinions. The partition
of India was opposed by a large number of people but those in power made the
compromise. We moved on. Unfinished debates usually take a deadly turn. We have
seen that for Telengana too, haven’t
we? Kashmir? Some countries wage
wars to settle difference of opinion. Some people even kill footballers for losing a match in the World Cup through
self-goals. Therefore, the argument that there is place for all opinions in a
democracy is true but the debate cannot be forever. On critical issues someone
has to bring the curtains down.

In the case of Narmada Dam it took the SC to bring the curtains down. But even
that is not acceptable to Medha Patkar.
What will be acceptable to her? That all her opponents die so she can prevail?
We protest, we agitate, we stall and all that is fine. But surely, the SC of
this country or the parliament has to be accepted as the final arbiter. One
cannot go on forever with “only my
opinion should prevail” kind of agitation. That then is not merely opinion;
it is intolerance for an opposing
view to succeed lawfully. There are still those tricksters who argue Narendra
Modi is not “legitimately” elected to the PM’s office. They can continue to
retain their opinions but our democratic process has definitely brought an end
to that debate. The problem with the Medhas, Greenpeaces and Kejriwals is that
any other outcome other than that of their choice is unacceptable to them, even
if lawful and legally endorsed.

Of these, Greenpeace (GP) is the McDonald’s of NGOs. They operate in 40
countries have 28 regional offices, thousands of staff and unknown number of
volunteers. Let’s read a bit of what former GP founders say. This is an excerpt
from ex-founding member Paul Watson
(on the anti-whaling adventures of GP):

“Greenpeace is a
major international corporation. Over the years, those of us who envisioned and
founded Greenpeace way back when, have watched in frustration and anger as
faceless bureaucrats turned ideals into profits, secure in their understanding
that the media myth of Greenpeace cannot be tarnished irreparably within the
mass media culture. For every person who gets wise to their scam, two more are
recruited. Greenpeace is a massive direct mail publicity machine utilizing
media and psychology to part people from their money… We created a large green
corporate monster that has forgotten where it came from and is now busy feeding
frantically at the trough of public guilt. Greenpeace has become the world's
largest multinational "feel-good" corporation… Greenpeace is posing
and marketing the illusion of saving the planet and they have an army of
gullible volunteers and paid canvassers who have been talked into believing
that Greenpeace is really, really saving the environment and saving whales in
particular… It's obscene, and it is high time that people woke up and saw these
large green organizations for what they really are - high-powered public
relation machines designed to fleece the public… It is now the Green Piece
organization. They have become very successful and efficient with their
incredible corporate skills in turning hot red blood into cold green cash”.

Greenpeace started with a few volunteers
in small boats to oppose nuclear tests by the US. Their boats kept getting
bigger and bigger. Their protesters and agitators knew how to create drama and
how to collect money. This tactic is now common to modern agitation technology
in India and abroad. One could say GP was among the pioneers: Money and Drama. Take a look at these pics:

That’s a GP rubber boat attacking a
Japanese ship. On the right is a larger GP boat blocking a Russian tanker from
uploading oil. Mind you, the oil upload is a legal operation but that doesn’t
stop GP from physically impeding and blocking operations. That is mild. In 2013
two of GP (Australia) activists invaded a farm and destroyed GM crops. They
filmed their act of vandalism and used the video for publicity and drama. The
NGO was sued and paid $280000 in damages. They are rich, they can afford that.
The two volunteers were given suspended sentences because it was a first time
offence and one of them was pregnant. The
two employees took the rap but GP didn’t take any responsibility for this act.
I wonder if these are “democratic” protests (do read the whole story). Err… remember our own Kejriwal re-connecting power-lines
of defaulters and asking people not to pay bills? India tolerates these jokers
because they peddle a fake “moral
superiority” over everyone else. And many gullible people fall for their
tricks.

You can oppose GM crops or power bills
but there is a line that one does not cross. The dangerous addition to
agitation technology is break laws, destroy private property, intimidate and
dare the govt to take action. Time to read about another ex-founding member of
GP, Patrick Moore:

“Canadian
ecologist Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace founding member, is a critic of
the organization. Moore's main criticisms have been leveled at the campaign to
protect the forests of British Columbia. In addition, Patrick Moore had once
spoken out against nuclear power in 1976, but today he supports it, along with
renewable energy sources. In Australian newspaper The Age, he writes
"Greenpeace is wrong — we must consider nuclear power". He argues
that any realistic plan to reduce reliance on fossil fuels or greenhouse gas
emissions need increased use of nuclear energy. Phil Radford, Executive
Director of Greenpeace US responded that nuclear energy is too risky, takes too
long to build to address climate change, and by showing that the U.S. can shift
to nearly 100% renewable energy while
phasing out nuclear power by 2050”.

Do note, according to the GP expert
above (Phil Radford) even advanced countries like the US can shift to 100%
renewable energy only by 2050 and that is just a wild estimate. Most of the
advanced countries have been using fossil fuels for hundreds of years but GP
wants India to stop straight away. India has been struggling to cope with a
huge population and the demand of electricity but GP wants us to live with
solar panels and windmills. Their lofty idea may be attractive to gullible
people but it is neither feasible nor implementable. Indians are already agitating for power. Many of them have lived
without it for centuries. They want it yesterday while GP, which is unable to
get advanced countries to replace their current systems, wants India to make
all the shifts. Here’s more from the actual article of Patrick Moore:

“It is the IPCC
(UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that my former colleagues in
Greenpeace, and most of the mainstream environmental movement, look to for
expert advice on climate change. Environmental activists take the rather grim
but measured language of the IPCC
reports and add words such as
"catastrophe" and "chaos", along with much speculation
about famine, pestilence, mass extinction and the end of civilisation as we
know it. Until the past couple of years, the activists, with their
zero-tolerance policy on nuclear energy, have succeeded in squelching any
mention by the IPCC of using nuclear power to replace fossil fuels for
electricity production. Burning fossil fuels for electricity accounts for 9.5
billion tonnes of global carbon dioxide emissions while nuclear power emits
next to nothing. It has been apparent to many scientists and policymakers for years
that this would be a logical path to follow. The IPCC has now joined these
growing ranks advocating nuclear energy as a solution. In its recently issued
final report for 2007, the IPCC makes a number of unambiguous references to the
fact that nuclear energy is an important tool to help bring about a reduction
in fossil fuel consumption. Greenpeace has already made it clear that it
disagrees. How credible is it for
activists to use the IPCC scientists' recommendations to fuel apocalyptic
fund-raising campaigns on climate change and then to dismiss the
recommendations from the same scientists on what we should do to solve it?”

That was written in December 2007. Since
then the IPCC itself has been under scanner for Climate Change falsification of
data and fraudulent practices in 2009-10. That, though, need not concern us in
this post. So what attracted GP to India? Well, the same reason that MNCs were
attracted to India post-1991. You now go to a super-store and you’ll find
shelves packed with soaps, body-sprays and stuff never heard of before. The
shelves are as crowded with these products as people in a Modi-rally.
Naturally, the McDonald’s of NGOs, GP, had to make an entry – even if a late
one. You see, since the mid-1990s the donors and donations to GP were
decreasing so they turned to the masses for direct collection of money (see here under “funding”). Some
call it the MLM type of business.

As with the MNCs, if you want to find
masses for your products where do you go? China or India! And that’s how GP
found their market in India. And people like emotion, drama and the media feeds
it to them in large doses. Just say the
govt is “anti-poor” and you can easily collect 1000 people around you in India
and also, importantly, money. And tell Indians: No nuclear power, no coal-fired plants, no dams. Call everyone who
opposes you corrupt, call everyone who opposes you anti-poor, call everyone who
opposes you anti-environment and you have a winner. That is precisely what
GP does and that is precisely what Arvind
Kejriwal & Co do. And what GP did earlier in the sea is now an adopted
“agitation technology” in India. Take a look at these pics:

The top montage is from the Kudankulam
protests and the bottom couple are from MP. These make good TV but the leaders
of these agitations do deserve to be prosecuted for endangering lives of
ordinary people. The MP river-agitation was a farce though. The leader was
quite clever in appearing to sink in water but was always ready for TV
soundbites. Let me reproduce a TOI report that I had quoted earlier and it’s a great example of “choreographed agitations”:

“Welcome to the
village which was in the eye of the storm with 'jal satyagrah' for the past
three weeks… It's a story of how the entire media was taken for a ride with the
help of mobile phones, which came in handy for keeping tabs on TV crews. The
spot shown on TV channels where the agitators protested is not the village
proper but the banks of a canal running into the Narmada…When TOI inspected the
place of demonstration after the water receded, the spot was found to be only
two feet deep… "We were sitting in water," said Mehtab Giri, a
villager who joined the protest. "First, we laid bricks and stone slabs on
which were placed iron doors used for sluice gates of the dam. This would help
us sit comfortably during the protest… "Whenever the media took shots, the
second arrangement in the slightly deeper water was used. Agitators waded into
water to show the level sometimes chin-deep and at others, neck-deep. When they stood up, it was hardly till
their waist." And they weren't in water all the time; they frequently
walked in and out of the canal"… there were only three people in the water
most of the time… The third was NBA worker Chittarupa Palit, who also walked
out to brief the media and file documents. Others took turns. The evidence is
all in the television shots".

There! That’s modern TV-time agitation
technology for you. And the hearts of viewers melt at the sight of these
suffering people and they start shelling out money. What about Kudankulam and
that charlatan SP Udaykumar? He’s as
fluent in Nuclear-science as Russians are in Bhojpuri. There are cases filed
against him and I hope he is prosecuted for his illegal activities. The
agitation he led was nothing but “sponsored
fear-mongering” backed by Churches. The story is a long one but explained
in depth by @TheKaipullai in his blog: “5
reasons why there is something wrong with the protests in Kudankulam” Part-1 and Part-2. I strongly recommend you read both parts and decide
for yourself. Of late, it is money and not causes that motivate the actions of
many of these unscrupulous NGOs. And they will claim they are God’s angels sent
to save you from yourself. “We are
killing the earth, we are killing the earth”! That is enough to frighten
anyone from the devil that is you.

There is an irony to the GP story that
came out only 2 days ago on June 16. When the greed for money is never-ending,
what do you do? Gamble! That’s what
some people do and that is what GP did. “Greenpeace loses £3m in currency speculation” says the headline. And the
explanation is: “We offer a full apology to our
supporters for the series of errors that led to the loss”… Greenpeace says the
staff member, who worked in its international finance unit, was not acting for
personal gain, but had failed to obtain authorisation from senior management.
He has since been released from his contract”. So you see, as in the GM
farm destruction it’s the employees who acted on their own. GP had nothing to
do with it. Oh yeah, some employee handled millions of Euros without the GP
management having the slightest of clues on what was happening. Do you believe
that? If that is believable then you can understand why many gullible people
buy the dooms-day screaming of Greenpeace. It’s money and innovation in
agitations.

This whole NGOs are responsible for hindering growth / development episode is a red herring in the grand scheme of things. Just like the "Vadra land scam" which was trumpeted ad nauseam but quietly dropped post victory this is pure political propaganda. I'll believe the IB report when the GoI can deliver a legal case that will withstand the scrutiny of the courts. And if the govt. fails to prosecute these "anti-national" NGOs then the govt. itself has become an accessory to these anti-nationals.

What is DESTROYING India is corruption at the highest levels.

The rot is so deep that there are anti-national military officers + politicians + police who are knowingly allowing drug networks to openly operate INSIDE the country which in turn is indirectly funding the terror groups via the ISI.

This has been well-documented and researched yet ZERO action has been taken. Just taking action on this front alone will deal a severe blow to ISI and also Dawood (who operates most of these drug & hawala networks within the country)

There is no Congress/BJP/AAP in any of this. We need honest INDIAN leadership to go after these anti-nationals who are operating within our own country with IMPUNITY before we can even DREAM of touching the foreign accounts etc.

Agree that it will take time but agencies need to be kicked into action ASAP. Acting reluctantly *after* PILs & SC orders leaves a bad taste. Pro-active approach and incremental progress is the key to retaining popular support.

UPA govt morons claim that they have brought 14crore people out of poverty. It is another matter that they fixed Rs.32 as the poverty cut off line to achieve this. I wonder why they did not fix Rs.5 or so and bring the entire country out of poverty.But today it is believed that even a full time beggar does not accept anything below Rs.10.In this background with 3million NGOs and the kind of FF that they receive and the number of staff in each of them and their extended familes,more than 14 crores must have been made super rich by UPA.The so called aid they give to the poor for religious conversion may have bloated the figure further. SO there is no reason not to believe that poverty in India is on the wane.

Solution is simple: Assuming IB has gathered the evidence, what is stopping the GoI from prosecuting the guilty. After all, as you rightly point out, NGOs have paid the price for violating the law in other countries.

Or is this another "WMD in Iraq" type of intelligence report which suits the political masters and helps them HIDE their own incompetency. i.e. We cannot deliver "development" & "good governance" because of these meddling NGOs

Solution suggested by you is simple in democracy like North Korea but not in India. Indians, predominately Hindus, by nature allow contrasting opinions to exist at the same time.They avoid persecution of people or group of people having opinions and view dissimilar from their own . They don't label others as " non-believer" who have to pay for their different view.Instead they just ignore the difference and move ahead. If the government of the day agrees with pro-Narmada group , they expect anti-Narmada group to just move ahead and neither hinder the jobs nor take pro-active action to make pro-Narmada group fail just to prove that their opinion is "the TRUTH ". Continuance of the protest is considered as "intolerance" and this intolerance is found distressing by most Indians. They are as comfortable with pro-Vedanta group as with anti-Vedanta group but once a course of action has been finalized everybody is expected to contribute to make that successful. Whereas ideology with roots in "cult of violence" believe that their "version"is the ultimate truth . This intolerance and " ideological sanction " to use violence to make "person with different opinion" to bend , crawl and obey is what makes Indians fearful. With an unofficial ban on Hindu values , through mischievous interpretation of constitutional provisions , baser instincts of human beings are getting prominence and more Indians are getting attracted towards "cult of violence". You must be aware of increase in number of violent-incidences , which,IMO,is all due to declining number of Indians with Hindu values. A large number of Indians, though Hindu by birth, are finding "cult of violence" attractive and are unhesitatingly recommending use of violence . One trivia which I would like share is that IB gives intelligence input , collection of evidence is not the job of any intelligence agency. Till now "protesting" is not a crime in India, here the protesters are arrested for not "listening" to authorities responsible for maintaining law and order . Crime is "obstructing govt official from discharging his/her duties " and so on. As we are aware "rent a crowd "is a business and no one can be arrested for "paid protest", as there is no law against it.

why mediacrooks wants us ta have nuclear plant and forest in MAHAN destroyed ..we don't care it is greenpeace or rosebeef or anyone else from planet MARS , we just want to give to future generations less nuclear and more sustainable energy plants and forests intact. That's all, why don't you understand this ..you go on attacking this man and that man we don't care , we want just pure air and healthy environment .. we are not fools. we know what it means to have nuclear plant (google LA HAGUE where nuclear wastes are dumped thousand metres deep , even in France that causes violent opposition , we don't even have a solution to stock radioactive waste and you talk and talk and talk empty words only makes people angry because you take them for idiots.

Look here one thing must be considered. Even I too want forests...but imagine that we live as tribals and are happy...question arises whether pakistan and china will allow us to live us as happy tribals in forests? No. They will enslave u....so development too is equally important whether u like it or not....freedom can be saved only by making india strong and not by hoping to live happily in forests. .. hope u got my point.

"The bullying of citizens by means of dreads and fights has been going on since paleolithic times. Greenpeace fund-raisers on the subject of global warming are not much different than the tribal Wizards on the subject of lunar eclipses. 'Oh no, Night Wolf is eating the Moon Virgin. Give me silver and I will make him spit her out." — P.J. O'Rourke (All the Trouble in the World )

I am self confessedly pro-development and have case-by-case patience for activists who claim to be pro-conservation (environment, indigenous rights, green cover etc). From personal experience, the activist organisations I engaged with were duplicitous at several levels - relying on outdated reports to make their case, stalling legitimate interaction with villagers by scare mongering, shouting down government officials at public hearings and so forth.

I can speak about Vedanta Resources' alumina/bauxite mining project in Lanjigarh as I was personally involved with the company for several years. In my experience, the chain of events went like a race relay.

The NGOs first protested that green cover would be eroded. This argument was countered with the proposal to reforest and create a parallel green cover. The first NGO vanished and a second came in its place!

They next said that the proposed mine site was forest area and an elephant corridor as well as harmful to rare medicinal plants and herbs. An independent government study found last traces of elephant dung from over three decades ago. Further, their argument on Niyamgiri (where the proposed bauxite was to be mined by Vedanta) being a 21st century Sanjeevani Hill was thrown out of the window. When these arguments failed, the second NGO (I forget whether it was Action Aid or some other organisation) vanished to be replaced by Survival International.

Survival projected itself as a champion of rights of the Dongria Kondh tribe in that area. And what a tragedy it was. Half the Kondh tribes wanted jobs for themselves and their children and not remain foraging on nuts and berries. The other half wanted to remain in their natural state. Survival exploited this division and carried out a huge campaign against Vedanta - human rights violation, violation of indigenous peoples, etc.

Every offer Vedanta made for R&R was turned down. As a company, Vedanta lost this battle recently (I had moved on a few years ago). The cost was a staggering $6Bn or roughly Rs. 36,000 crores in HARD investment dollars on a plant that was forced to be mothballed. Add to this the ongoing losses due to lost production, alternative bauxite sourcing etc and it paints a sorry picture.

It also galls me personally that these NGOs were helped every step of the way by clueless politicans - Jairam Ramesh, environment minister at the time, specifically and his lord and master, Rahul Gandhi. Mr. Gandhi famously went to Lanjigarh and told the Kondh tribespeople there, "I am your soldier in New Delhi." Well, finito.

Forget Survival and any other NGO campaigner. I would say Mr. Gandhi did in one visit what the NGOs could not accomplish in 7-8 years.

The lesson I have learnt personally is that NGOs change their agendas/campaign rhetoric to suit the material on hand - most of the time, ill informed. Ask these same NGO volunteers (and I have met and had tea and biscuits with several of them) to practice the rustic lifestyle of the Kondh for a few days. Well, its easier to get an alcoholic to blow up a distillery.

A NGO protest funded by overseas interests to weaken our domestic aluminium production capabilities, Vedanta is just one example. You see similar instances when you dig deeper in to iron ore mining as well as a host of other minerals.

Lynching is not lawfully permissible in India today; However, for the economic loss these NGOs have caused India and the way they have kept us mired to 1994 thereabouts, I wouldn't mind having a go. Assuredly, this is not a knee jerk reaction from me.

The Vedanta story is slightly different. They tried first to bully the locals, when they failed tried to con them. The CSR work should have been done both in letter and spirit. which was not done.They had enough time to do that. They themselves screwed it up.

I personally believe there is no one correct way we could have gone about it (hindsight is useful and makes you feel wretched usually in circumstances like these). Yes, we did browbeat the locals. No, we certainly did not con them.

As far as CSR goes, it cut both ways. We genuinely engaged with the Kondh for R&R work RIGHT FROM THE START and were only partially successful.

Some efforts succeeded, for example offering vocational work to adult Kondh youth to be followed through with employment at the alumina refinery. Those folk who were able and willing were given this opportunity and they took it. Our progress was monitored by the local government (collector/district magistrate).

Some efforts failed miserably. I recall an instance where we build solid (brick and stone floor) houses for the local community, who hitherto were used to living in mud shelters. These people were so used to having their livestock around them (cows, goats, etc) and they brought these animals into the houses. The animals were not comfortable walking on "stone floors" and preferred to just go outside. The villagers followed and we found most of the "pucca" houses we constructed abandoned. Led to a rethink of sorts in the manner in which we subsequently built permanent shelters for them.

Having been involved in our efforts in Lanjgarh/Rayagada, I would like to believe we made an honest effort to engage and make our case. Too much heat, very little light though, with each of us (Company and NGOs) sticking to our stand.

I like to think it the pro-development (we create jobs, bring prosperity etc) stand of Vedanta just cut no ice with the "we want to be left to lead our indigenous lifestyle the way we have for the last so many centuries" stand of the Kondh.

Having said that, I did mention I am pro-development and the manner in which NGOs exploited this sentiment and directly mothballed $6Bn of investment is just not something that sits well within me.

I am happy that finally what I used to think of Greenpeace has proven right. Thru this blog, I would like to narrate my experience with GP.

1. It was 2004 and I was just 6-7 months into my job. I was in Churchgate, Mumbai for a meeting with client when a young GP volunteer stopped me with what is now their catchline - "Do you have a few minutes for environment?" This was enough to tickle my conscience bone and I gave him about 30 mins. He went on to explain about Greenpeace and what they have been doing for "saving our planet." I was obviously impressed and offered to contribute to the cause. Since I wasn't earning much at that time, I offered to pay monthly through ECS. In the hindsight, I realize why the volunteer was a bit upset upon hearing my contribution amount.

2. I kept on contributing this little amount for almost 2 years. One of my client was NPCIL, the entity which is responsible for building, operating and maintaining Nuclear Power plants. The Kudankulam plant, KKNPP as they call it, was on the verge of completion, but the scientists who I used to meet told me that the plant is stuck up in some environmental issues. They talked briefly on the NGOs who are protesting, but did not take the name of Greenpeace. But it did occur to me that I have been contributing my hard earned money to someone without even bothering to check their actual work. I also realised that when I put my money in stocks, I am tempted to check its performance almost daily, but I was totally ignorant about performance of GP!!!

3. Over the next few days, I surfed and tried to check the operations of GP and other NGOs and realized that they are doing nothing apart from disrupting. There is always a third way out, but these NGOs were not compromising at all. In fact, this was the time I heard about Medha Patkar too. Almost immediately, I gave instructions to my bank to stop all the ECS mandates.

4. Today also, I see many young volunteers near railway stations who stop decently dressed people and try to extract money. I just walk past them. Recently, when the whole issue of GP came out, I was happy about my decision. Last week, I saw GP volunteers stationed outside my office building and talking to some fellow colleagues. Whoever I had acquaintance with, I hage explained the true story of GP to them. They all have agreed not to shell out a single penny for these NGOs.

I think you make a very pertinent point about not checking on their performance, because the contribution was like a donation. We need to ask for the progress reports and the funds utilization report, this will make them more accountable !

time to learn from from the one who already suffered a lot . where exactly you will dump the nuclear waste ? In our sea? If Fukushima happens in Kudankalam or Chernobyl or Bhopal how will you deal with that ? we don't need cheap and dirty reactor from other countries where we have natural resources to produce solar and wind .The news which don't carry http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-six-injured-in-kudankulam-nuclear-plant-accident-in-tamil-nadu-1988224

It was 2006 and I was in my first job. There was a Tapri just out of our office where we used to gather for tea breaks.Once I saw some young people wearing shirts with Greenpeace logos. Those seemed to be fresh grads of a college.

They were enthusiastically explaining how Greenpeace is helping the poor and how our small contributions can make a huge difference inthe lives of less privileged ones. Their emotional appeal worked and I along with my friends agreed for a monthly contribution.

It's only after reading some articles by their co-founders and others, we realized what they are up to.

This is how they operate. They use fresh, young college grads (not sure they employ those or play with their young gullible minds).And they target places as tea shops around offices, foot over bridges of some railway stations of Mumbai-local etc

People out of their guilt of 'not giving enough back to mother nature' agree to contribute.

Wish this articles reaches out to those young minds which they pollute and also to those gullible people who fall for their tricks.

NGOs are just another extension of 'create fear-increase consumption'...or in this case donation phenomenon.

Throughout the years we have regularly heard doomsday predictions like Ozone layer depletion, SARS, Bird Flu etc., all of which are supposed to wipe away the entire population. Dig a bit deeper and you will find commercial interests that fuel this scare-mongering.

The latest in that series is green-house effects and carbon emission that is supposed to warm the earth into extinction. Although we should do our utmost to conserve natural resources and keep the environment clean, Doomsday predictions should not be the way to do that.

The irony of the matter is that countries like India who are being targeted by the GP types should show the way to the rest of the world. Traditionally, Indians have always made very careful use of resources. Go through the garbage thrown out by an Indian still leading a traditional life and go through an American garbage can, and you will know what I mean. The onus of making real changes should lie on those who have done the maximum damage. Instead countries like India are being shamed into shunning technology. If the Americans just reduced their excessive packaging and waste, a lot of environmental damage will be avoided. But none of our IMs will raise their voice and point out the obvious.

Then there is the other aspect of NGO funding as just another form of bribe money, which you have pointed out. Bribes paid by India's enemies to stall India's progress or to tarnish the image of Indians like Mrs Clinton's NGOs tried to do against Modi. Those should be treated as criminals and handled accordingly.

Ravinar, thanks for stepping a bit out of the "strictly media" zone and taking on even other crooks. (Time to change your handle? ;) ) Fantastically explained as usual...thanks for that!

Most of the greenpeace activists are hollywood celebs. They probably use more natural resources like electricity/oil from whatever source than any other people. Greenpeace activist should first giveup their luxury bunglows, cars and designer dresses first. Per capita consumption of power in India is amongst least. GP and leftist are the biggest hypocrites.

Indian culture and tradition is nature based. We worship nature as god. There is an underline meaning in having so many animals as vahan of hindu gods. Even some god has taken avatar in animal forms. Abrahamic religion make fun of Hindu gods but they dont understand the hidden meaning in worshipping animals and trees(peepal, tulsi etc ). For the survival of humans, nature and environment is very important. India should be the last country in GP list.

Most of the environmental issues could be solved if population is limited to say around 4billion. All countries should implement 1 child policy and adoptions encouraged. This policy can be implemented for 7yrs and then re-evaluate. Because of population explosion we are eating poisons in food knowingly.

three and a half decades earlier, my father told a chanda collecting team that he will not contribute anything not but to collect chanda in his name & he will give back 50 % of the proceeds . The true import strikes me now for a guilt feeling that occurred when reluctantly contributing for many organizations known and unknown with this incident popping up .If i had followed my father's thought 2 decades back, i would be writing blogs sipping krishna drinks and dasis in a well furnished farm houses across the world waiting for moksh for a good job done.

There are some genuine NGOs with envoronment cause which are helping the environment without a single protest. They are educating the people, planting the trees and thereby living by example unlike Greepeace, which has made protests and blackmails a huge business. Greenpeace hasn't done a single thing constructively, they are always into destruction. They are selectively targetting developing countries like India at the behest of their foreign funders to keep India undedevloped forever.

In other words, anarchical AAP in politics is same as Greenpeace on environment. Greenpeace doesn't do any 'Green' protest without a 'Greenback'.

The attempt to shut down the voice of civil society and NGO's are too dangerous for our country .The research of this article is so biased .Greenpeace did an excellent job on many fields in India like ship breaking , e-waste ,climate change etc .I can see and smell fascism in the name of development . Take lands from poor , pollute our river ,pollute our sky and promote crony capitalism .That day is not too far when they will shut down the voice of Media .We are entering into a dangerous era .Compromising basic human rights . Prof .Udaykumar and his struggle is for the last ten years .Mockery of those people who fight for the rights of Indian people will lead us to a dangerous state .Surprised to see everywhere intelligent people without knowing anything about anyone pass a nasty comment on good people .Compromising on environment will give us many Uttarakhand incidents .BTW Vedanta guy is trying to say good things about Vedanta .What a joke.I

You are indulging in the same apocalypse language that this greenpeace people use. Look at your writing. You say everywhere intelligent people without knowing anything pass a nasty comment on good people. It applies to you more than anyone else. I have always found MC to write stuff with verifiable reports and facts. Are you denying the illegal activities of greenpeace mentioned in the post? You are supposed to be intelligent and others are dumb? You could have also called others corrupt, anti-poor etc. which is what ego maniacs like you do. Argue on facts and not on silly emotions.

The first paragraph of this post clearly says that opinions and dissent is an essence of democracy. What it emphasizes is that unending debate is detrimental. The post by the ex Vedanta Person explains this clearly. He accepts some of the fallacies of Vedanta, but also highlights the stream of NGO's who turn up raking one issue after the other. The problem here is that nuclear energy protests or mining protests are not recent. They have been happening at many places. NGO's who have been in the forefront of these will by now have a database of problems identified and solutions negotiated. Are these used in discussions with management? Is a white paper published setting out the terms and conditions for a sane development? Why such a stage by stage protest (e.g. NBA)? What we get to see is the street level agitations designed for the media. Do not these agitations and time delay indirectly result in cost cutting leading to lax safety standards?

Many of the so called "Green Technologies" may not be Green. There are already concerns that windmills affect the local weather leading to droughts in adjoining region. http://www.gardenridge.net/wind-turbines-weather-patterns.htm and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2632800/posts . Similarly there was great hype about Bio-fuels but looks like it has a negative impact on Food Security. So every development has its negative effects, we would have to minimize the impact of that. For that we need even more funds for research and agitations are not going to help.

If the objective of NGO's is for a better future of mankind, they should work together with others to arrive at the best possible solution.

As ordinary citizen of this country,I fail to digest the fact that over Rs 95000 crores have been pumped in by foreign Donors mostly western/ Christian agencies to promote dissent in India? Why do our so called well meaning NGOs need such a huge amount of money to propogate their ideology? Such an amount could have easily built a 100 million Toilets for Poor,or may be 15 000 MW of environment friendly Power,or may be Clean Drinking water for millions?Where as in reality,the money has disappeared in to bottomless pit not knowing where it has been used/ misused? The motives of Donors are clearly suspect and also the beneficiaries motives need to be investigated? Evading & avoiding this Qn leads us to only one conclusion ie this is another method of enrichment by NGOs.If actions are driven by wrong motives,than we can end up seeing endless protests,struggles in the name of Poor,denying them the benefits of development for ever.

Yes. Vedanta is corrupt . Nuclear is dirty . Posco is destroying our tribal,our forest Ambani lives in a nasty house where thousands lives in a street. I have not said others are dumb. Reading too much between the lines .Greenpeace and Amnesty are doing good work for ages . Calling someone ego maniac in a debate you literally end the debate .May be for a change instead of teaching me to practice humility you may practice first . for a change read some counter content also.. http://archivev.asianage.com/columnists/polinomics-dissent-now-crime-385

First of all learn some humility yourself and learn to argue decently. You started off calling others and the author "fascist". That is simply because people like you are intolerant and cannot hear other points of view even if backed by logic and facts. You keep pointing to links, others have provided links to and so does this article. And like AK49 you do go around calling others corrupt and dirty. You expose yourself, nobody has to do it for you. That is why you are an ego maniac. You think all others are corrupt, lowly creatures without the gift of any brains that ony you and greenpeace possess. Get a check up done.

What like AK49 ? huh ? when did i mentioned that I am a AK fan ? This is a debate between Govt vs NGO's not between AAP and BJP. You are also an ego maniac sir , the one who is full of himself .I am not intolerant. Comparing me every-time with AK will really test my patience . what you are ? An Internet Hindu ? The deadliest troll creature which we found in Indian internet . When did i said the author is fascist ? I said the GOVT is Fascist .I will stick to that .who the hell you are to judge my intentions ? you are just a mere mortal without a decent brain. I will check my brains and you can go and take a hike...adios !

Dont get so agitated. Whether you are a fan of AK49 or not, your behaviour is typically that of an Aaptard - What I think is holy, what you think is garbage. That attitude pours out from every sentence you write. That is the same attitude AK49 and Greenpeace jokers carry. Your very first line started with a lie. You were screaming attempt to shut down voices of civil society or NGOs. Only an extremely paranoid person will jump to alarming conclusions like that. Neither the govt nor anyone or even the article here as asked to shut down any NGO. It is intolerant, sick people like you who believe only your illogical voices should blare from everywhere while the rest should listen to your nonsense. And that is what makes you very angry. I agree with your decision to have your brains checked. It seems essential.

I did worked for a Wind Turbine company and was posted in Kanykumari from where KK Nuclear plant is not even 15 KM and my stay was in between KK and KK Plant in small but very good developed village from 2005 to early 2008 during my stay in KK all I used to hear from locals in Tea Shop and shop keepers is that Medha Patkar is coming for protest and never heard this person named Udaykumar. If he is so popular than I would have heard about him even once, very often I and my friends used to go to nearby big town which Nagercoil and this guys comes from Nagercoil but never heard about him there too and his protest against KK-Nuclear plant.

I still remember not a single regional news paper carried Udaykumar's protest against KK Nuclear Plant all we can go back and check the fact is Medha used to come to Trivandrum (Near by Airport from Kanyakumari and KK-Nuclear Plant) via flight in the morning and go back by evening. I doubt it that Udaykumar has been protesting against this plant for last 10 years as projected in media. Even sometime heard rumors from local that she comes by helicopter and lands inside plant and go back. Her protest hardly used to draw even few tens of peoples

The crony capitalists of western nation along with right wing political establishment provide funds to various Organisation mostly linked to Churches,who in turn divert funds to their Indian Agents(NGOs) to foment protest in India against development projects in the name of fighting Indian Crony Capitalist and to fight for rights of Poor but in effect,they work for their foreign masters whose motives are more than what meets the eye.Instead of rational discussion they try to brow beat those who Qn them by accusing them of being anti poor,anti people,crony capitalist,fascists etc.Their motto is let poor remain poor so that they can promote their wicked intention of conversion.One thing they will never never answer ie why do they need such huge funds?

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly wispers rustling through the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to victims, and he wears their face and their arguements, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works seceretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politics so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear - Cicero

You are an excellent creator and writer. People change opinions, talk opposite things over time and if you are intelligent enough like you, you can always write intelligent articles like these in your blog. While everyone enjoys your writing, this onesideness will only categorize your blog to only one sided opinionThere is good and bad in every human action. Democracy is finding a solution between conflicting groups, so that society is stable and provides maximum justice to maximum people. Obviously there are always losers and still they develop enough strength to seize power, they are losers. In that sense, whoever wins triumph and those lost will either accept and move on, or wait for time or revolts.

My point is you are moving to the right further and further, and over time will become a fringe entity and people will ignore you. Already you see very few leftwingers praising your articles who used to appreciate your content. Any opposing view is being put down by your ardent readers often insulting them, ultimately leading to people of opposite view starting to dislike you and writing off as a clever rant rather than revelation of truth. Please don't move away much right. If you are at centre or at a bit right to the centre, you will have lots of readership whatever their views are.

Bharat viswamitra,it is his blog, his choice. One writes per ones convictions and intrinsic inclinations ( otherwise passion will be absent in such writings). So categorization is pointless. If it makes sense to readers they will like it , identify with it ; if not - one has to move on.he fills in a space which is not covered ( deliberately ignored) by mainstream media .

Challenging him on facts of the article is ok, but not on the choice of subjects or his writing style . It is waste of time. ( though i am myself not sure why i am even responding, hahaha. Maybe i am struggling to pass time !!!!!)

You are an excellent creator and writer. People change opinions, talk opposite things over time and if you are intelligent enough like you, you can always write intelligent articles like these in your blog. While everyone enjoys your writing, this onesideness will only categorize your blog to only one sided opinionThere is good and bad in every human action. Democracy is finding a solution between conflicting groups, so that society is stable and provides maximum justice to maximum people. Obviously there are always losers and still they develop enough strength to seize power, they are losers. In that sense, whoever wins triumph and those lost will either accept and move on, or wait for time or revolts.

My point is you are moving to the right further and further, and over time will become a fringe entity and people will ignore you. Already you see very few leftwingers praising your articles who used to appreciate your content. Any opposing view is being put down by your ardent readers often insulting them, ultimately leading to people of opposite view starting to dislike you and writing off as a clever rant rather than revelation of truth. Please don't move away much right. If you are at centre or at a bit right to the centre, you will have lots of readership whatever their views are.

If Narendra Modi (when he was CM of Gujarat) had backtracked on development due to blackmails and foreign funded protests of Medha Patkar, today Gujarat remained undeveloped like 15 years ago. Modi didn't care about anti-India, anti-development NGOs and went ahead with developmental projects with his no nonsense approach, which made him Prime Minister of India now.

If Narendra Modi as PM of India succumbs to the threats of foreign funded illegal NGOs, then India will remain undeveloped like Africa. He must get rid of Foreign funded NGOs if he wants India's development.

Who is Greenpeace to dictate to India on what kinds of energy or electricity we should use? Is India a subordinate country ruled by Greenpeace foreign emperors? All Greenpeace can do is request Indian govt to look into natural energy resources. If they want India to explore the Solar and Windmill energy, they Greenpeace MUST provide the full funding and latest technologies from its funding countries WITHOUT any conditions.

Or else, get lost. Indians are already struggling with 12-18 hours (no electricity) power cuts a day. Greaanpeace executives enjoying 24/7 electricity and air conditioning are suggesting Indian to live without electricity in 50+ degrees centigrade tempature hell? India should ban all such foreign NGOs which are attacking on sovereignty of India.

I was your avid fan, but starting to doubt your intent. The means you use to justify your points are so ridiculous. Ex: You start off quoting SeaShepherd head Paul Watson (who was initially into GP. Who left GP mainly bcos he believed in action and not simply words - ever watched Whale wars? Ever followed Cove Guardian campaign?). Then show pics about GP blocking japanese tankers (without mentioning the intent - which i am sure, you are unaware of). Moreover, thats exactly what Seashepherd does (it believes in actions not mere agitations and dharnas like GP). So, you quoted Paul for your convenience and mentioning that blocking tankers is wrong (which even SeaShepherd has been doing from the past 7yrs, won the legal battle in the International Court of Justice)! So, in your over-enthusiasm to malign GP you quote SeaShepherd' Paul who does more than what GP does, but according to your thesis, both should have been wrong. Then how come you use Paul' quote to justify your thought about GP? Typical kuve ka mendak thesis. You are good at MSM related topics, beyond that, you just make up your own thesis to justify your point. Please do your homework. You might be right in saying that GP might have had their hands dirty w.r.t. Kudankulam, but using the same brush to malign each and every activity that GP or such environmental orgs did, is a bit of an over-stretch, without proper homework.

Justification or no/poor justification, the point we need to take home is India doesn't need foreign controlled organisations to intervene in her developmental plans. If there are flaws let the country learn from its mistakes and move forward but after 200 years of British rule even setting up of MacDonald s should be scrutinised in India. We have to take cue from our past mistakes. So GP has their hands dirty in kundankulam then shouldn't ever action of theirs be questioned. World vision - the children's welfare global ngo is a soul harvesting network starting with innocent children. I mean how bad can it get. The country's problems can be solved by first removing all these external influences like green peace and world vision which only compound them further otherwise. In this election the people literally showed the world how much they have started hating the UPA and it's anti national clan of inner circle leaders and policies. We need our motherland back don't care who gets emotionally hurt and at whatever cost.

From your excellent exposition it is very clear beyond doubt that Greenpeace is really working hard for Greenback. And what is Greenback?. It is the synonym for American dollar which is the official US currency for International transaction. Let it change its name as Greenback Gatherers GG instead of GP. And what about gullible people who donate them and enrich them by becoming poorer themselves. We can only say: " A fool and his money are soon parted" At least now let the poor awake and understand the designs of these dons.

Many commentators are suggesting that foreign funded NGOs should be a big NO. As a virologist may I suggest that Bill & Melinda Gates foundation had a big hand in polio eradication. Let them work within the legal framework. After 65 years of independence, half of the people don't have latrines, access to good health care, good roads. After reading the comments I feel like people think our country is underdeveloped because of foreign funded NGOs. Focus on right questions people.

I appreciate the work done by Gates foundation, but I have a point of view that may sound cynical. When we talk of charity we always talk of Gates foundation, but seldom mention Linus Trovalds, Stallman etc, who strived to make OS free and in the process helped a number of businesses to setup shop and grow. Had Linux not been free, how would we have expected companies like Google to grow and offer services for free. The amount of impact of IT going mainstream has helped human kind a lot than the charities setup with profits, some of which is alleged to have been by being monopolistic. My idea of charity would be for businesses to keep profits reasonable and encourage society to grow thereby making them capable of sustaining themselves rather than providing doles.

Charity has been an hallmark of the Indian ethos. Even today we can see a number of Marwari charities helping people at many places in India. Temples, Gurudwaras also participated widely in charity work. It is because of political interference in religious administration that this has got affected and the void is being filled by NGO's.

Iam not against any country helping another country. But help is something that is done without any sort of expectation. But help in the guise of fulfilling an agenda is not help at first place. It is interference.

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